Virginia

The history of Virginia is long and storied. I'm not going to try to cover it all here, but I will try to outline the important events as it affects my ancestors. Near as I can currently tell they arrive in the middle 18th century (1750 or so) in the form of William (Richard) Ferrell, who settles the Virginia frontier and is then slain by Indians after settling on the western side of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy river.

The family settles this area, and pretty much stays put (prove this), but the political boundary changes states and counties many times, which causes some confusion when looking at the records. For instance someone shows as being born in "Virginia", but then later is on a West Virginia census entry. Here is a brief history of the region.

1 Jan 1733 Virginia Colony is relatively small and coastal	1 Jan 1735 - Orange Kentucky Territory is formed as Orange County, hugely expanding	14 Dec 1738 - Augusta Augusta created from Orange County. Oragne remains as the small south-eastern county, and the exapansive Kentucky region is renamed as Augusta county. Frederick is created to the orth of Augusta.
1 Jan 1770 - Botetourt Many changes in the intervening years that were not relevant to my ancestors, but in 1770 Botetourt is formed as the western section of the Kentucky region and Augusta remains as the north-eastern section of what would become West Virginia.	1 Dec 1772 - Finecastle Many changes in the intervening years that were not relevant to my ancestors, but in 1772 Botetourt is redivided and Fincastle formed as the western section of the Kentucky region and Botetourt remains as the north-eastern section of what would then become West Virginia.	1 Dec 1772 West Augusta is formed north of Augusta, and the eventual boundary of what would then become West Virginia becomes evident.
31 Dec 1776 - Kentucky Kentucky (current borders), Montgomery, and Washington Counties are formed from the previous Fincastle County, which was eliminated.	1 Mar 1778 - Greenbriar Greebriar County is formed from the previous Botetourt County, which was shrunk.	1 May 1786 - Russell Russell County is formed from the previous Washington County, which was shrunk.
1 Oct 1789 - Kanawha Kanawha County is formed from the previous Greenriar and Montgomery Counties, which were shrunk.	1 May 1790 - Wythe Wythe County is formed from the previous Montgomery County, which were shrunk.